This is the third "roving chaplain" we've had in the last couple of years -- I think it's my job to minister to them -- they spend all day visiting with people listening to their problems -- so when they get to me they have a bit of a break to sit back and listen to me waffle on about the cool things tha tare happening in the world of technology :-)

The building in which I have my office pays for a roving pastor to visit with everyone -- and we just got a new one and it wa shis first day and he was sucked into the space-time vortex tha tis my office...

@Duane...well at least you got to the bottom of it eventually. Ground noise can be a real pig. Recalls....I once went thru a lot of hoops to fix a washing machine then saw a recall notice for them....fortunately the refunded me for the parts, but not for my labour....

David - ""guys looking after the cars who know a lot less about electronics than we do....."

I hear that. I once brought a car back to the dealer because of some ground noise in the radio. I explained to the mechanics three or four times, that it was gound noise, and the easiest way to hear it was to turn the radio on with the volume all the way down. Every time they said: "There's no problem. I turned the volume way up and din't hear any noise." About six months later I got a recall notice because of a grounding problem in the radio wiring harness.

David - I'd say I'm a lot better off with new cars. I may be lucky with cars, but I've only had one case of an electronic car stranding me away from home. A crank shart position sensor worked it's way loose. It actaully stranded me twice, but the second time was because the mechanic put the replacemnt on backwards.

Measurement - Car electronics are kind of scary. Replacement or repair costs of the electronics are really scarry. But, I do like the fact that I never have to adjust anything and don't have to worry about an occasional failure to start in the morning with my newer cars.

MS243 - Of course, there isn't charm in all old machinery. The only charm in my 1972 Chevy Vega was that it looked a bit like a shrunked Camaro. Fortunately it was easy to work on because it needed work often.

all this Toyota business has me thinking of My Great Uncles 2 cylinder john deere tractor I would drive for fall harvest -- 2 cylinders, 2 magnetos and a switch to enable them -- spun the flywheel via a crank to start it

Many years ago, I was working as an AE at a company developing optical character recognition systems. Part of my job was to test the products. One day I scanned my tie and broke the software. I was ridiculed for quite some time until it was discoverd that dark printing would cause the same thing. Fortunately, it wasn't a criticle system of any sort.

The scary thing about the Toyota case is not that it's in Toyota cars, but that similar things are likely in most cars. I've sat in meetings and had heated arguments about such things. Fortunately, I've never had to fight for it with life criticle systams.

There is a large selection of demos out there available for the rift to explore the capabilities. I've mainly used it just to play. However, I did try my hand at creating a couple unique worlds of my own.

EE Times Live Online Chats are the place to "see and be seen" when it comes to discussing what's been happening in electronics and engineering and what you thought about it all, from hard news to the weird and wonderful.

This week's chat will take place on Wednesday, October 30, 2013, commencing at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time / 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

In conjunction with unveiling of EE Times’ Silicon 60 list, journalist & Silicon 60 researcher Peter Clarke hosts a conversation on startups in the electronics industry. One of Silicon Valley's great contributions to the world has been the demonstration of how the application of entrepreneurship and venture capital to electronics and semiconductor hardware can create wealth with developments in semiconductors, displays, design automation, MEMS and across the breadth of hardware developments. But in recent years concerns have been raised that traditional venture capital has turned its back on hardware-related startups in favor of software and Internet applications and services. Panelists from incubators join Peter Clarke in debate.